Basic knowledge of the C programming language and Matlab
as well as an interest in hardware (input devices). Class size limited
to 15 students.

Projects:

Requirements for the final project include a written
proposal (one page) by the fourth week of the quarter due via e-mail to
verplank@interval.com.
Requirements and ideas for projects are listed on the projects
page.

Students are to attend one lab session per week. The lab is located at
CCRMA
situated on the Knoll.
Lab session times will be set at the first day of class.

Class Focus

Inventing Input Devices

From teletype to joystick to mouse, the style
of human-computer interaction depends on input devices. In this interdisciplinary
project course we will design new styles of interaction. By examining
the challenge of designing controllers for electronic music, we hope to
invent more appropriate and expressive interfaces for any applications
the project teams choose.

Sensors and signal conditioning: lectures
and labs

The first half of the course will consist
in lectures and labs to develop familiarity with sensors and signal conditioning.
We will explore simple sensors like potentiometers, force-sensitive-resistors
(FSRs) and accelerometers as well as more exotic devices developed at CCRMA
like the radio
baton which tracks 3D motion and biomuse
which
measures human bioelectric signals.

Device and application design: project

The second half of the course will consist
of a group project to design and build an innovative input device.
Along with the device we want a demonstration of how it might be used in
a sample application. Design methods will be reviewed including
brainstorming, scenarios, quick sketches and mock-ups.

Human performance evaluation

During both the labs and project, we will
introduce methods for evaluating human-system performance both quantitative
and qualitative.

Telecourse

Lectures and labs will be at the Knoll in
the Center for Computer Research on Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
We will be experimenting with networked conferencing to Princeton
University for all the lectures and student presentations. At
Princeton, the course is taught by Perry
Cook.